ZOUEITENIYE, Lebanon: Located 5 kilometers west of Hermel in northeastern Lebanon, Zoueiteniye is now almost a ghost town as for years its residents have migrated to Beirut and its suburbs.

Many of the town’s stone houses are partially destroyed and just 10 remain occupied today. Most of Zoueiteniye’s original 500 residents have moved to the city as a result of the government’s neglect of the village and failure to ensure the most basic living standards.

One of the remaining residents, who asked to be identified by his initials M.F., works in agriculture and has five dunums (5,000 square meters) of cannabis fields.

He says cannabis cultivation provides his only source of income for his family, despite the fact that growing the drug contradicts his Muslim faith.

He adds that he faces only two options: He can either continue planting cannabis, which can earn $5,000 per month for his family, or make only $1,000 monthly from cultivating other crops. The resident says that the latter option would result in his children having to drop out of school.

F.S., a 50-year-old man who still resides in the village and also asked to be identified by just his initials, also grows and sells cannabis. He is wanted by the Lebanese judiciary for planting and dealing with the drug.

F.S. holds a degree in law from a private Lebanese university. He worked in many jobs in Beirut and its suburbs before returning to the village. He has been a longtime political activist and a member of one of the leftist parties.

When a drug dealer F.S. knew was arrested, his name also was listed as one of the dealers in the country.

“This is when I left political activism and became someone wanted by the judiciary,” the 50-year-old says.

F.S. refuses to surrender himself to the police.

Ali Jaffar, the deputy head of the municipality of Jouret al-Hashish in Hermel, says the practice of cannabis plantation in the area goes back 80 years. He says that successive Lebanese governments, regardless of their political affiliations, have destroyed the crop each year. Sometimes they have given subsidies to the affected farmers, he adds.

Jaffar says that the continuation of this confrontation between farmers and the government indicates that cannabis is the only plant that ensures a respectable income for its cultivators.

He blames the government for not having agricultural and developmental policies that could substitute cannabis plantation. He says that while in Europe cannabis is being sold in pharmacies, in Lebanon it is destroyed and its economic benefits are completely neglected by the government.

A local official in Hermel, Moufleh Allaw, asks why the government has not agreed to a proposal from Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt, who has called on the government to legalize and purchase the drug.

Jumblatt has also called for the use of the drug in the manufacture of medicine.

Allaw says he is surprised that the government has neither agreed with Jumblatt nor come up a viable alternative to the crop.

The official says the government policy of eradicating the fields will not put a limit on the drug’s plantation, adding that the farmers are the only ones suffering losses.

The yearly eradication by the Central Drug Control Office has led to corruption within different departments of the government. Allaw believes that a lot of money is being stolen by security officials and politicians in the implementation of this yearly crackdown.

He also warned against the government’s neglect and the continuation of the crackdown, saying that farmers and influential families in the area will not allow their crops to be eradicated, adding that the recent targeting of bulldozer owners and the police was evidence of this.

But a security source told The Daily Star that such warnings will not stop them from continuing with the crackdown, saying that some 6,000 dunums of cannabis have already been eradicated this month out of 30,000 dunums in total in the area. The source said it would take the campaign it started last week and will within a month and a half destroy all the fields.